First to fly around the world Home » vehicles » First to fly around the world First to fly around the world In 1924, four Douglas World Cruisers and eight American crewmen set out from Seattle, Washington, to attempt the first around-the-world airplane flight. One hundred seventy-five days later three of the aircraft and crews became the first to circumnavigate earth. The Douglas World Cruiser biplane was a variant of the Navy’s DT-2 torpedo bomber that could be operated either with wheels or floats. The prototype was delivered 45 days after the contract was let in summer 1923. Tests were successful, and four more aircraft were ordered. Each of the aircraft was named after a US city representing a compass point: Seattle, crewed by Maj. Frederick Martin (pilot and flight commander) and SSgt. Alva Harvey (flight mechanic); Chicago, crewed by Lt. Lowell H. Smith (pilot) and 1st Lt. Leslie Arnold; Boston, with 1st Lt. Leigh P. Wade (pilot) and SSgt. Henry H. Ogden aboard; and New Orleans, with Lt. Erik Nelson (pilot) and Lt.

Jack Harding in the cockpits. The success was largely a result of extensive planning; 30 spare engines were dispatched all over the world prior to the flight; with co-operation of the Royal Air Force and the US Navy, 28 nations supplied thousands of gallons of fuel and oil along the flight path. The airplanes left Seattle, Washington, on 6 April 1924 and headed west, equipped with the latest navigational aids. Even so, fog, blizzards, thunderstorms and sand storms took a toll. On April 30, Seattle crashed in dense fog on a mountainside near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula. Major Martin and Sergeant Harvey hiked out of the wilderness. The remaining crews continued, flying on to Japan, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe, England, and Ireland. On 3 August Boston was forced down in the North Atlantic, sinking in rough seas while being towed. A prototype was dispatched to Nova Scotia, where Lieutenant Wade and Sergeant Ogden renamed the aircraft Boston II and rejoined the flight. The crews stopped in several US cities and returned triumphantly to Seattle on 28 September.

The trip had totaled 175 days, covering 44 360 km (27,553 miles), with stops in 61 cities, the total flying time being 371 hours, 11 minutes. Douglas World Cruisers – first to circumnavigate the globe, in 1924 The Douglas World Cruiser Chicago is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D. C., while New Orleans is on display at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, California. The Seattle wreckage was retrieved in 1967 through the efforts of Bob Reeve to go on display in the Centennial Aviation Museum, which caught fire in 1973. It survived the fire and is now displayed at the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. First solo circumnavigation by air Nine years later, in 1933, it took another American, Wiley Post, only 7 days to be the first to fly solo around the world.

Between July 15 and 22, Post covered 25 110 km (15,596 miles) in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes in one of the most remarkable displays of flying endurance of the century. Post’s single engine Lockheed Vega, the Winnie Mae was equipped with a Sperry automatic pilot, a radio direction finder, and other new devices. Wiley Post (1898 – 1935) First to fly solo around the world, 1933. Post was considered one of the most colorful figures of early aviation. He set many records before being tragically killed near Point Barrow, Alaska in 1935 in a crash which also took the life of his flying companion, humorist Will Rogers. Earlier, in 1931, ex-barnstormer Post and navigator Harold Gatty had thrilled the nation by dashing around the world in the Winnie Mae. The flight was not only a great technical achievement, but one which demanded extraordinary fortitude. For over 106 hours, neither Post nor Gatty had an opportunity to sleep.

The flight’s elapsed time of 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes far surpassed the previous record of 21 days set in 1929 by the airship Graf Zeppelin. The Graf Zeppelin crossed the Atlantic many times as a passenger carrier. It also circumnavigated the globe in 21 days in 1929. First non-stop circumnavigation by air The first non-stop flight around the world was made by, again, a team of the US Air Force flyers in 1949. Taking off from Carswell Air Force base in Fort Worth, Texas on 26 February, Captain James Gallagher and a crew of 14 headed east in a B-50 Superfortress, called Lucky Lady II. They were refueled four times in air by KB-29 tanker planes of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron, over the Azores, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Hawaii. The circumnavigation was completed on 2 March, having traveled 94 hours and 1 minute, covering 37 743 km (23,452 miles) at an average 398 km/h (249 mph).

Lucky Lady II in flight 1949 The next quest was to fly around the world, nonstop, non-refueling. Nonstop, non-refueling circumnavigation by flight By 1986 designer Burt Rutan and pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager had devoted over five years to building and flight-testing the Voyager. The canard wing design, or forward elevator, similar to that successfully used by the Wright brothers in 1903, provided additional lift and improved the plane’s efficiency and range. A preliminary sketch of the 1903 Wright Flyer was drawn on a brown paper bag in the Wrights’ living quarters in 1902. Coincidentally, the first sketch of the Voyager was made on a paper lunch napkin in 1980. Constructed of graphite composites, Voyager’s total weight was 4 050 kg (9 000 pounds), including an unprecedented 3150 kg (7 000 pounds) of fuel.

On 14 December 1986 Richard Rutan and Jeana Yeager took off from Edwards, California, piloting the Voyager from a cramped 2,3 m (7.5 ft) long, 1,1 m (3.3 ft) wide and 1m (3 ft) tall cockpit. Voyager’s takeoff weight was more than 10 times the structural weight, but its drag was lower than almost any other powered aircraft. Voyager’s wingtips sustained minor damage during its takeoff roll because of the massive amount of fuel. Approximately 75 cm (2.5 ft) of graphite skin was missing from the left wing’s foam core. Traveling at an average speed of 185 km/h (115.8 mph), it took the Voyager 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds to become the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe nonstop, non- refueling. They triumphantly landed again at the Edwards Air Force Base at 8:06 a.m. PST 23 December 1986. Rutan Voyager – the first aircraft to circumnavigate earth non-stop, non-refueling.

First woman solo circumnavigation In 1964 Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world. Her single-engine Cessna 180 was called the Spirit of Columbus. For more info, spread your wings toward the Smithsonian Museum’s Women in Aviation and Space . Jerrie Mock and Spirit of Columbia, nicknamed Charlie. The first woman to earn a pilot’s license was French lady Raymonde de Laroche , who got hers on 8 March 1910. (By that time many women in Europe were flying, albeit without an official license.) Later the same year, Blanche Scott became the first woman pilot in the USA when the plane that she was allowed to taxi suddenly became airborne. In 1911, Harriet Quimby became the first licensed American female pilot. In 1912, Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. First in-flight refueling The first in-flight refueling was tackled by the US Army Air Service on 25 June 1923. In August, lieutenants Lowell H. Smith and John P.

Richter set a world’s record by staying aloft for 37 hours and 15 minutes in a DH-4 over San Diego with the help of refueling from another DH-4 (above). First in-flight refueling, 1923. Img Wikipedia . Thanks to Dave Lam for contributing to this page Wiley Post: The First Pilot to Fly Around the World Alone Wiley Post: The First Pilot to Fly Around the World Alone April 26, 2011 The "Winnie Mae" plane flown by Wiley Post Share Email to a Friend Print MARY TILLOTSON: Now the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson tell about pilot Wiley Post. He set new records when he flew his own airplane around the world in nineteen thirty-three. (MUSIC) SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: It was nineteen thirty-three. Only six years earlier Charles Lindburgh became famous around the world as the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, a young pilot was trying to fly across Russia. He had left Moscow several hours before. All he heard was the sound of the one engine that powered his plane. Hour after hour the same sound.

Now the weather was bad. He could not see much ahead, only the fog. Flying in fog is very dangerous. Yet the sound of the engine made everything seem warm and safe. Then, out of the fog he saw a mountain. He had only seconds to bring the airplane up. It was a narrow escape, one of many he would have during his long flight. DOUG JOHNSON: The young pilot was Wiley Post. He was trying to fly around the world by himself. He made the trip in less than eight days. He stopped eleven times for fuel, food and a little sleep. Wiley Post made his famous flight in July, nineteen thirty-three. Not many flight instruments existed that could help him find his way. He was alone, fighting against sleep. If he fell asleep he would die. (MUSIC) SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Nothing in Wiley Post's early years suggests that he would become a famous pilot. He was born in Grand Saline, Texas, in eighteen ninety-eight. His family were farmers. In nineteen thirteen, Wiley saw something that forever changed his life -- an airplane. After watching the plane fly, young Wiley waited until most people had left the area. He then began inspecting and studying the plane.

He measured different parts of the plane with his hands. Many years later, Wiley Post would say that first airplane was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. Wiley Post DOUG JOHNSON: Wiley Post began to study everything he could find about flying. He began to educate himself about subjects such as mathematics, radio and machinery. His self-education would continue the rest of his life. Post finally rode in an airplane in nineteen nineteen. At the time, many people believed all pilots were special people. They believed it took special skills and courage to fly an airplane. But after his first ride, Wiley Post knew that flying was something he could learn to do. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Wiley Post began his career in flying, not as a pilot, but as a performer who jumps from airplanes using a parachute. He did this with a group that performed flying tricks to earn money. He jumped ninety-nine times in two years with the flying show. When he was not jumping with a parachute, he was being taught how to fly by pilots in the air show. But he could not fly as often as he liked.

DOUG JOHNSON: Wiley Post then decided the only way to become a good pilot was to buy an airplane of his own. He needed more money than he earned in the flying show. He went to work in the oil-producing areas of Texas. But he damaged his left eye in an accident. Doctors had to remove his eye. At first, Post thought his days as a pilot were ended. A pilot needs to be able to judge distance. Judging distance is difficult without two eyes. It seems impossible to tell how big objects are and how far away. Wiley Post began teaching himself to judge distance with only one eye. He worked hard at training his eye and brain to tell the correct distance. It took a long time, but he succeeded. He continued to fly and soon became a very good pilot. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen twenty-eight, he got a job flying the plane that belonged to a rich oil producer from Oklahoma. The man's name was F.C. Hall. He bought a new airplane for Post to fly. Mister Hall named the airplane the "Winnie Mae" after one of his daughters. F.C. Hall told Post he could use the plane to enter flight competitions. Post did.

In nineteen thirty, he entered the National Air Races. The race called for flying without stopping from Los Angeles in the western state of California, to the city of Chicago, in the middle western state of Illinois. Post won the race. He defeated several well known pilots. It was the first time the public heard the name Wiley Post. DOUG JOHNSON: Post was not really interested in racing airplanes. He wanted to be the first person to fly around the world. Many pilots had talked about trying to make such a flight. But no one had done it. Post believed he would need someone to help him in the effort. He chose an Australian man, Harold Gatty, to do the mathematics that decided the plane's direction. Post would fly the plane. On June twenty-third, nineteen thirty-one, Post and Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field in New York. They returned to Roosevelt Field eight days, fifteen hours and fifty-one minutes later. They had flown around the world. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: At first everyone was very happy. Wiley Post and Harold Gatty were heroes. Then many people began to say that Post was nothing more than an airplane driver because he had no real education. They said Gatty was the real hero.

He had guided the flight. Both men knew they had made the flight as a team. Others did not recognize this. This hurt Post. Wiley Post began to plan another flight around the world. This time he would go alone. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Wiley Post knew that any effort has a good chance of success if the person planning the task is well prepared. So he worked hard to prepare well. He used the most modern equipment possible. He made sure the engine on the "Winnie Mae" was perfect. And to prepare himself, he went without sleep for long periods of time. On July fifteenth, nineteen thirty-three, Post took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York. His first stop would be Berlin, Germany. He landed in Berlin twenty-six hours later. He became the first person to fly from New York to Berlin without stopping. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: After a little food for himself and fuel for the "Winnie Mae," Post was once again in the air. This time he was headed for Russia. For long hours he flew, listening only to the sound of his engine. Often, the weather was so bad he could not see where he was.

At one point he came so close to running out of gas he considered using his parachute. But at the last minute he found a place to land and get gas. The flight across the huge width of Russia was difficult. He made several stops for gas and a few hours rest before flying across the Bering Sea to Alaska. DOUG JOHNSON: By now, he was very tired. To keep himself awake as he flew east during the long night, Post tied a piece of string to one finger. The other end of the string was tied to a heavy aircraft tool. He held the tool in his hand. If he started to fall asleep, the tool would fall from his hand. The string would pull his finger and wake him. From Fairbanks, Alaska, he flew to Edmonton, Canada and then on toward New York. More than fifty thousand people waited at Floyd Bennett Field. Wiley Post gently landed the "Winnie Mae" long after dark. He had flown around the world in seven days, eighteen hours and forty-nine minutes. Thousands of excited people rushed toward the plane. Wiley Post was a hero. He had become the most famous pilot in America.

(MUSIC) SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen thirty-five, only two years after his around the world record flight, Wiley Post was killed in a flying accident in Alaska. Post and the famous American humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post’s plane crashed on takeoff near Point Barrow. Before Post's death, the government of the United States had bought the "Winnie Mae." The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. owns the plane. You can see it at the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. DOUG JOHNSON: Many pilots have flown around the world since Wiley Post made his famous flight. His record was first broken only a few years after his death. Since that time many records for the trip have been made and broken. Yet Wiley Post was the first to fly around the world … alone. (MUSIC) SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. DOUG JOHNSON: And I’m Doug Johnson. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are all available at voaspecialenglish.com.

Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart Famous Female Aviator Studio headshot portrait of American aviator Amelia Earhart, the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight, wearing a leather jacket. (circa 1932). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) By Dani Alexis Ryskamp, Contributing Writer Updated November 02, 2015. Who Was Amelia Earhart? As a pilot, Amelia Earhart set many world flying records. She became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to make a solo flight across both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Earhart also set several height and speed records in an airplane. Despite all these records, Amelia Earhart is perhaps best remembered for her mysterious disappearance, which has become one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century. While attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world, she disappeared on July 2, 1937 while heading toward Howland's Island.

Dates: July 24, 1897 -- July 2, 1937(?) Also Known As: Amelia Mary Earhart, Lady Lindy Amelia Earhart’s Childhood Amelia Mary Earhart was born in her maternal grandparents’ home in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897 to Amy and Edwin Earhart. Although Edwin was a lawyer, he never earned the approval of Amy’s parents, Judge Alfred Otis and his wife, Amelia. continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World In 1899, two-and-a-half years after Amelia’s birth, Edwin and Amy welcomed another daughter, Grace Muriel, into the world. Amelia Earhart spent much of her early childhood living with her Otis grandparents in Atchison during the school months and then spending her summers with her parents. Earhart’s early life was filled with outdoor adventures combined with the etiquette lessons expected of upper-middle-class girls of her day. Amelia (known as “Millie” in her youth) and her sister Grace Muriel (known as “Pidge”) loved to play together, especially outdoors. After visiting the World’s Fair in St.

Louis in 1904 , Amelia decided she wanted to build her own mini roller coaster in her backyard. Enlisting Pidge to help, the two built a homemade roller coaster on the roof of the tool shed, using planks, a wooden box, and lard for grease. Amelia took the first ride, which ended with a crash and some bruises – but she loved it. By 1908, Edwin Earhart had closed his private law firm and was working as a lawyer for a railroad in Des Moines, Iowa; thus, it was time for Amelia to move back in with her parents. That same year, her parents took her to the Iowa State Fair where 10-year-old Amelia saw an airplane for the very first time. Surprisingly, the airplane didn’t interest her. Problems at Home At first, life in Des Moines seemed to be going well for the Earhart family; however, it soon became obvious that Edwin had started to heavily drink alcohol. When his alcoholism got worse, Edwin eventually lost his job in Iowa and had trouble finding another. In 1915, with the promise of a job with the Great Northern Railway in St.

Paul, Minnesota, the Earhart family packed up their belongings and moved. However, the job fell through once they got there. Tired of her husband’s alcoholism and the family’s increasing money troubles, Amy Earhart moved herself and her daughters to Chicago, leaving their father behind in Minnesota. Edwin and Amy eventually divorced in 1924. Due to her family’s frequent moves, Amelia Earhart switched high schools six times, making it hard for her to make or keep friends during her teen years. She did well in her classes, but preferred sports. She graduated from Chicago’s Hyde Park High School in 1916 and is listed in the school’s yearbook as “the girl in brown who walks alone.” Later in life, however, she was known for her friendly and outgoing nature. After high school, Earhart went to the Ogontz School in Philadelphia, but she soon dropped out to become a nurse for returning World War I soldiers and for victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918 . First Flights It wasn’t until 1920, when Earhart was 23 years old, that she developed an interest in airplanes.

While visiting her father in California, she attended an air show and the stunt-flying feats she watched convinced her that she had to try flying for herself. Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921. According to her instructors, Earhart wasn’t a “natural” at piloting an airplane; instead, she made up for a lack of talent with plenty of hard work and a passion for flying. Earhart received her “Aviator Pilot” certification from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale on May 16, 1921 -- a major step for any pilot at the time. Since her parents could not afford to pay for her lessons, Earhart worked several jobs to raise the money herself. She also saved up the money to buy her own airplane, a small Kinner Airster she called the Canary. In the Canary, she broke the women’s altitude record on October 22, 1922 by becoming the first woman to reach 14,000 feet in an airplane.

Earhart Becomes the First Woman to Fly Over the Atlantic In 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh made history by becoming the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic, from the U.S. to England. A year later, Amelia Earhart was asked to make a non-stop flight across the same ocean. She had been discovered by publisher George Putnam, who had been asked to look for a suitable female pilot to complete this feat. Since this was not to be a solo flight, Earhart joined a crew of two other aviators, both men. On June 17, 1928, the journey began when the Friendship, a Fokker F7 specially outfitted for the trip, took off from Newfoundland bound for England. Ice and fog made the trip difficult and Earhart spent much of the flight scribbling notes in a journal while her co-pilots, Bill Stultz and Louis Gordon, handled the plane. On June 18, 1928, after 20 hours and 40 minutes in the air, the Friendship landed in South Wales.

Although Earhart said she did not contribute any more to the flight than “a sack of potatoes” would have, the press saw her accomplishment differently. They started calling Earhart “Lady Lindy,” after Charles Lindbergh. Shortly after this trip, Earhart published a book about her experiences, titled 20 Hours 40 Minutes. Before long, Amelia Earhart was looking for new records to break in her own airplane. A few months after publishing 20 Hours 40 Minutes, she flew solo across the United States and back -- the first time a female pilot had made the journey alone. In 1929, she founded and participated in the Woman’s Air Derby, an airplane race from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland, Ohio with a substantial cash prize. Flying a more powerful Lockheed Vega, Earhart finished third, behind noted pilots Louise Thaden and Gladys O’Donnell. On February 7, 1931, Earhart married publisher George Putnam, the man who had discovered her. Also in 1931, Earhart and several other female aviators banded together to start a professional international organization for female pilots, of which Earhart became the first president.

The Ninety-Niners, named because it originally had 99 members, still represents and supports female pilots today. Earhart published a second book about her accomplishments, The Fun of It, in 1932. Solo Across the Ocean Having won multiple competitions, flown in air shows, and set new altitude records, Amelia Earhart began looking for a bigger challenge. In 1932, she decided to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. On May 20, 1932, she took off again from Newfoundland, piloting a small Lockheed Vega. It was a dangerous trip: clouds and fog made it difficult to navigate, her plane’s wings became covered with ice, and the plane developed a fuel leak about two-thirds of the way across the ocean. Worse, the altimeter stopped working, so Earhart had no idea how far above the ocean’s surface her plane was -- a situation that nearly resulted in her crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. In serious danger, Earhart abandoned her plans to land at Southampton, England, and made for the first bit of land she saw.

She touched down in a sheep pasture in Ireland on May 21, 1932, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first-ever person to fly across the Atlantic twice. The solo Atlantic crossing was followed by more book deals, meetings with heads of state, and a lecture tour, as well as more flying competitions. In 1935, Earhart also made a solo flight from Hawaii to Oakland, California, becoming the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. This trip also made Earhart the first person to fly solo across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight Not long after making her Pacific flight in 1935, Amelia Earhart decided she wanted to try flying around the entire world. A U.S. Army Air Force crew had made the trip in 1924 and male aviator Wiley Post flew around the world by himself in 1931 and 1933. But Earhart had two new goals. First, she wanted to be the first woman to fly solo around the world. Second, she wanted to fly around the world at or near the equator, the planet’s widest point.

The previous flights had both circled the world much closer to the North Pole , where the distance was shortest. Earhart wanted to make the longest possible flight around the globe. Planning and preparation for the trip was difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. Her plane, a Lockheed Electra, had to be completely re-fitted with additional fuel tanks, survival gear, scientific instruments, and a state-of-the-art radio. A 1936 test flight ended in a crash that destroyed the plane’s landing gear. Several months passed while the plane was fixed. Meanwhile, Earhart and her navigator, Frank Noonan, plotted their course around the world. The most difficult point in the trip would be the flight from Papua New Guinea to Hawaii because it required a fuel stop at Howland’s Island, a small coral island about 1,700 miles west of Hawaii. Aviation maps were poor at the time and the island would be difficult to find from the air. However, the stop at Howland’s Island was unavoidable because the plane could only carry about half the fuel needed to fly from Papua New Guinea to Hawaii, making a fuel stop essential if Earhart and Noonan were to make it across the South Pacific.

As difficult as it might be to find, Howland’s Island seemed like the best choice for a stop since it is positioned approximately half way between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. Once their course had been plotted and their plane readied, it was time for the final details. It was during this last minute preparation that Earhart decided not to take the full-sized radio antenna that Lockheed recommended, instead opting for a smaller antenna. The new antenna was lighter, but it also could not transmit or receive signals as well, especially in bad weather. On May 21, 1937, Amelia Earhart and Frank Noonan took off from Oakland, California, on the first leg of their trip. The plane landed first in Puerto Rico and then in several other locations in the Caribbean before heading to Senegal. They crossed Africa, stopping several times for fuel and supplies, then went on to Eritrea, India, Burma, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. There, Earhart and Noonan prepared for the toughest stretch of the trip -- the landing at Howland’s Island. Since every pound in the plane meant more fuel used, Earhart removed every non-essential item -- even the parachutes.

The plane was checked and re-checked by mechanics to ensure it was in top condition. However, Earhart and Noonan had been flying for over a month straight by this time and both were tired. On July 2, 1937, Earhart’s plane left Papua New Guinea heading toward Howland’s Island. For the first seven hours, Earhart and Noonan stayed in radio contact with the airstrip in Papua New Guinea. After that, they made intermittent radio contact with the U.S.S. Itsaca, a Coast Guard ship patrolling the waters below. However, reception was poor and messages between the plane and the Itsaca were frequently lost or garbled. Two hours after Earhart’s scheduled arrival at Howland’s Island, at about 10:30 a.m. local time on July 2, 1937, the Itsaca received a last static-filled message that indicated Earhart and Noonan could not see the ship or the island and they were almost out of fuel. The crew of the Itsaca tried to signal the ship’s location by sending up black smoke, but the plane did not appear. Neither the plane, Earhart, nor Noonan were ever seen or heard from again.

The Mystery Continues The mystery of what happened to Earhart, Noonan, and the plane has not yet been solved. In 1999, British archaeologists claimed to have found artifacts on a small island in the South Pacific that contained Earhart’s DNA, but the evidence is not conclusive. Near the plane’s last known location, the ocean reaches depths of 16,000 feet, well below the range of today’s deep-sea diving equipment. If the plane sank into those depths, it may never be recovered. Wiley Post - First to Fly Solo Around the World, in the Winnie Mae Movie Star Philanthropist In the 1920's and 30's, Will Rogers, an Oklahoman and part Cherokee Indian, was an American icon. That era was so different from now, that it's difficult to describe his popularity. We have our celebrities today, but are any of them "beloved"? Will Rogers was. A few of his most famous quotes: "I only know what I read in the papers." "I never met a man I didn't like." "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." Check out the Will Rogers web site.

Wiley Post First to Fly Solo Around the World, Lost over Alaska By Stephen Sherman , Jan. 2001. Updated June 27, 2011. When Wiley Post and Will Rogers crashed at Point Barrow, Alaska on August 15, 1935, the world mourned the loss of the great flier and the beloved humorist. Post twice set the record for flying around the world: June, 1931 - 8 days, 16 hours - with navigator Harold Gatty July, 1933 - 7 days, 19 hours - solo Also a scientific innovator, Post developed a pressure suit that permitted him to fly the Winnie Mae into the stratosphere. He was a natural flier. No less an authority than Eddie Rickenbacker declared that Post was "a man born with as sensitive a touch as any aviator could develop." Youth Wiley Post was born in Texas on November 22, 1898. Never much of a student, Wiley was interested in mechanical things. His family moved around a bit; when Wiley was 11, they settled in Garvin County, Oklahoma.

He saw his first airplane at an air show in nearby Lawton County (coincidentally, the WW2 ace Robert S. Johnson , grew up in Lawton Co.). Post's first job was with the US Army. He switched to work in the oil fields in 1919, but whether times were tough, or Post was just wild, he stole a car in 1921. He was convicted and sentenced to ten years, but was paroled after one year. He lost his left eye in an oil field accident in the mid-1920's, and used the $1800 settlement to buy his first airplane. In 1925, he first met his fellow Oklahoman, Will Rogers; Rogers needed to get to a rodeo, and Post was pleased to fly the famous humorist there. He became the personal pilot of F.C. Hall, a wealthy Oklahoma oilman, and had use of Hall's personal plane, an open cockpit Travel-Air biplane. Winnie Mae Later Hall bought a Lockheed Vega, largely for Post's use, nicknamed Winnie Mae for the oilman's daughter. The Depression intervened, and Hall was sold the plane back to Lockheed.

In 1930 Hall bought a later version of the Lockheed Vega, a model 5-C, again nicknamed Winnie Mae. This later aircraft is the one most often seen in photographs of Wiley Post. (When I was a child, my Dad, a lifelong aviation buff, had a model of the Winnie Mae in the house. It's weird aerodymanic 'pants' over the wheels fascinated me, as did its blue-on-white color scheme, its large NR-105-W registration number on the wings, and the list of faraway cities on its world itinerary.) In 1930, the Lockheed Vega was the hottest airplane of its type. Specifications and performance data for the "Wasp" powered Lockheed Vega 5-C: length 27'8", wing span 41', height 8'6", wing area 275 sq. ft, empty weight 2361 lbs., useful load 1672, payload 1012, gross wt. 4033 lbs., max.

speed 170 MPH, cruise 140 MPH, landing 54 MPH, ceiling 20,000 ft., gas capacity 96 gal., oil 10 gal., range 725 miles. price at the factory, July 1928 - $18,500. The Lockheed Vega was one of the most famous record-breaking airplanes of the early 1930s. The beautifully streamlined, high-wing, single-engine monoplane was designed by John Northrop and Gerrard Vultee, two aviation pioneers who later established their own aircraft companies. Although the Vega first flew in July, 1927, it was during the early 1930s that the plane established its reputation for rugged reliability and airworthiness. It was designed as a small transport aircraft, carrying six passengers and a crew of two. Lockheed built about 130 of them between 1927 and 1934. In addition to Wiley Post, two female aviators, Amelia Earhart and Ruth Nichols flew the planes. Post first achieved national prominence in 1930,when he won the National Air Race Derby, from Los Angeles to Chicago.

The side of the Winnie Mae's fuselage was inscribed: "Los Angeles to Chicago 9 hrs. 9 min. 4 sec. Aug. 27, 1930." The Winnie May is on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum (NASM). Around the World in Eight Days In 1931, he flew around the world in the Winnie Mae with his navigator, Harold Gatty. (Gatty was a renowned aviator in his own right. An Australian naval cadet, he had accompanied Roscoe Turner on a trans-contintental flight in 1929. In 1930, he flew with Harold Bromley on an unsuccessful Trans-Pacific attempt. He devised the ground-speed and drift indicator which formed the basis of the automatic pilot. During the War, he served on McArthur's staff as Director of Air Transport and wrote the Raft Book-a survival manual for downed Allied aircrews. He founded Fiji Airways, now Air Pacific, in 1951.) On June 23, 1931, Post and Gatty left Roosevelt Field, New York.

They made fourteen stops: first at Harbor Grace, Newfoundland; then Chester, England; Hanover and Berlin, Germany; Moscow, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk, all in the Soviet Union; Nome, Alaska; and Edmonton, Canada. They then flew to Cleveland, and back to New York on July 1, having traveled 15,474 miles. Here's their partial itinerary, copied from the program of the July 7 Hotel Astor Banquet. LOG OF THE "WINNIE MAE" (New York Daylight Savings Time) TUESDAY, JUNE 23 - Cleveland, Ohio - Landed at Roosevelt Field, N.Y. The flight proceeded smoothly, across the Atlantic and Europe. But two inches of water covered the airfield at Blagovyeschensk (Siberia) and the Winnie Mae bogged down in the mud. After wasting fourteen hours grappling with the plane, Post and Gatty were finally rescued by a detachment of American soldiers with a tractor. Dirty, but not damaged, the Winnie Mae once again soared through the sky.

In Khabarovsk, USSR, the plane was grounded for several hours while mechanics inspected the engine. Luckily, the Winnie Mae was in perfect running order, and the around-the-world flight continued. After a 17-hour leg, they landed in Alaska. Their most serious setback occurred on June 30, in Solomon, Alaska, where they bent the Winnie Mae's propeller. In his book, Around the World in Eight Days, Post described the takeoff from Solomon: With 100 gallons of fuel aboard, we started to take off. Taxiing back along the beach, the ship started to sink into the sand. With a quick thrust I banged the throttle open to pull her through it before we were stuck. But all I succeeded in doing was to boost the tail up into the air. With a loud slap the propeller cut a hole in the sand and bent both tips on the blades. I cut the emergency switch just in time to keep 'Winnie Mae' from making an exhibition of herself by standing on her nose. That would have been fatal to our hopes. I jumped out and surveyed the damage.

With a wrench, a broken-handled hammer, and a round stone, I drew out the tips of the blades so they would at least fan the air in the right direction. But misfortunes never come singly. Harold was swinging the prop for a prime with the switch cut to restart the hot engine. He called 'all clear' to me, and I switched on and whirled the booster. One of the hot charges of gasoline caught on the upstroke of the piston, and with a back fire the Wasp kicked. The propeller flew out of Harold's hands, and the blade opposite smacked his shoulder before he could jump clear of the track. He dropped like a log. It was fortunate, to say the least, that it was the flat side of the blade which hit him, though it gave him a bad bruise and a wrenched back. If the prop had been going the other way, he might have been sliced in two. Like a major, Harold climbed in as soon as he had recovered his senses, and we took off for Fairbanks. I was cautious as I had ever been on that run along the shifting sands of Solomon beach. Luck was with me, and we got away without misfortune No. 3.

I hope we didn't leave it behind for the next bird who lands there! The damaged prop was replaced in Fairbanks with a spare obtained from Alaska Airways. They climbed over the 10,000 foot Rockies, to Edmonton, where they landed at Blatchford Field, another water-logged strip. While they had touched down there, they couldn't possibly take off from it. The locals helped them haul the plane over to Portage (now Kingsway) Avenue, which served well enough for the Winnie Mae to get airborne. They landed at New York's Roosevelt Field on July 1. They were welcomed across the country, including lunch at the White House on July 6. The next day, a ticker tape parade in New York City and a banquet given by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America at the Hotel Astor. Speakers included Post, Gatty, Mayor Jimmy Walker, and Assistant Secretary of Commerce Clarence Young. After the flight, he acquired the Winnie Mae himself. Sources differ as to whether he had a falling-out with F.C. Hall, and bought the plane, or "Hall's admiration for his pilot manifested itself in the gift of the Winnie Mae." - as noted on the NASM web site.

Post and Gatty published a ghost-written account of their journey, titling it Around the World in Eight Days, a play on the title of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. Will Rogers contributed an introduction. Solo He spent the next year improving his airplane, installing an auto-pilot made by the Sperry Gyroscope Company and a radio direction-finder which homed in on target radio stations. In 1933, he repeated his round-the-world flight, but this time did it solo, with the aid of the auto-pilot and radio compass. He took off from New York's Floyd Bennett Field on July 15, bound, non-stop, for Berlin. Despite bad weather over the Atlantic, he made it in 26 hours, setting a record for a New York-to-Berlin flight. After a couple false starts, he departed Germany, only to be forced down in Moscow by trouble with his auto-pilot. While more repairs were needed in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk, he reached Khabarovsk ten hours ahead of his previous record. In Alaska, his radio direction-finder malfunctioned, and he got lost.

My friend, Larry Rivers, a pilot from that part of Alaska, offered this comment on the itinerary: I expect that he had crossed from Anayder or Providania Russia, hit the Alaska Coast, then followed it down to Bethel where he could get fuel. From there he could easiely follow the Koyukuk River in to Fairbanks or hopped over the Alaska Range and gone to Anchorage. Either are the normal routes through that part of Alaska. Flat is located east of Bethel which is a coastal town on the Bering Sea. Its at the mouth of the Koyukuk River, about due west of Anchorage. Worried about the 20,000 foot mountains in his way, he touched down at a 700-foot landing strip in a small mining town, Flat, Alaska. He smashed his prop and right landing gear in the process. Some local miners repaired on the aircraft, and the prop was flown to Fairbanks to be straightened. The photo shows the miners lifting the Winnie Mae straightened. Ed Olson, the Flat mine owner, took the photo, which is in the collection of Gene Jenne in Talkeetna Alaska, who received the photo from Ed Olson.

After repairs, he continued on to Edmonton (July 22), and then flew over 2000 miles non-stop to New York. 50,000 people greeted him when he landed back at Floyd Bennett Field at 11:50 PM, July 22, 1933. Only making eleven stops, despite some major mishaps, he had knocked 21 hours off his previous record, completing the solo flight in seven days, nineteen hours. Into the Stratosphere Always fascinated by the scientific challenges of flight, in 1934 he focused on high-altitude, long distance flight, - funded by Frank Phillips of the Phillips Petroleum Company. Since the Winnie Mae's cabin could not be pressurized, he developed, with B.F. Goodrich Company, an early pressure suit. The suit was constructed of double-ply rubberized parachute cloth glued to a frame with pigskin gloves, rubber boots and an aluminum & plastic diver's helmet. It had arm and leg joints that permitted easy operation of the flight controls and also enabled walking to and from the aircraft.

The helmet had a removable faceplate that Post could seal when he reached a height of 17,000 feet, a liquid oxygen source breathing system, and could accommodate earphones and a throat microphone. The liquid oxygen was contained in double-walled vacuum bottles, and as the super-cold gas boiled off, it could be used for breathing and suit pressurization. In his first flight using the pressure suit, Sept. 5, 1934, above Chicago, he reached 40,000 feet. In the super-charger equipped Winnie May, Post set unofficial altitude records (as high as 50,000 ft), discovering the jet stream in the process. In March 1935, Post flew from Burbank CA to Cleveland OH in the stratosphere using the jet stream. He took his famous five year-old single-engine Lockheed Vega 2,035 miles in 7 hours and 19 minutes with an average ground speed of 279 mph in a 179 MPH aircraft. At times, his ground speed exceeded 340 MPH. He attempted four transcontinental stratospheric flights, all ending in mechanical failure, before retiring his beloved aircraft.

Post's pioneering accomplishments were the first major practical advance in pressurized flight. His Last Flight In 1935, Post became interested in surveying a mail-and-passenger air route from the West Coast to Russia. Funded by the airlines, he began to assemble a hybrid plane built from two wrecks. The low-wing monoplane consisted of a Lockheed Orion fuselage and long wings from a Lockheed Explorer. He installed a 550 HP Wasp engine, and oversize 260 gallon gas tanks. He planned to add pontoons, to land in Alaska's and Siberia's many lakes. His friend Will Rogers visited him frequently at the Lockheed airport in Burbank where the strange beast took shape. Rogers called the red-and-silver plane Aurora Borealis, but others called it "Wiley's Orphan" or "Wiley's Bastard." Post insisted that it didn't have or need a name, just a number. When the pontoons he had ordered did not arrive, he had a set installed that were designed for a much larger plane. Altogether it was a dangerously heavy aircraft, which they loaded down further with hunting and fishing equipment.

After a test flight in late July, 1935, Post and Rogers left Seattle in the unique plane in early August. Rogers commented on the huge pontoons, but Post dismissed his concerns. Their itinerary: Seattle - Juneau, Alaska - Dawson CITY, Yukon Territory - Aklavik, NWT - Matanuska Valley, Alaska -Fairbanks, Alaska - Point Barrow, Alaska. Larry Rivers, offered this comment on this flight's itinerary: Note that there are two Dawson's in Canada. Dawson Creek (start of the Alcan highway) and Dawson City (gold rush city). The route from Juneau would hit Dawson City. As the route is not very direct, they must have been working around a great deal of weather. They probably left Dawson and, due to the weather, had to go south west to the Matanuska Valley, where I am sitting now, as I write this email. At that point they would have fueled in Palmer, Alaska, or a few miles further west in Anchorage. From there they would have headed north up the Susitna Valley to Fairbanks where they likely stopped again for fuel. From Fairbanks they could have flown to Barrow, Alaska.

From Fairbanks, it is NW to Bettles and Barrow. Coastal weather up there is horrible. I fly it a couple months a year and the wind comes off the Arctic ice, across the open leads and turns into ice fog. That lays on the ground about 400 feet thick and you dare not enter if you don't know exactly where you are going. Last trip I landed at Wainright for the same reason. When it was time to leave I made two attempts to get out of it. Once I returned to Barrow and spent another night. The next day I tried to skud run to the mountains and it was too thick so I went up and IFR to Bettles. Post and Rogers did not know the area. They were brave indeed to even venture into the area in poor weather. They were headed to Barrow for fuel, then west to Providania, Russia a route he had flown the other direction. They may have been headed to Nome, and then across the water (just logical) but encountered weather, in which case he would have had no other place to go except Barrow. Or maybe Barrow was just part of the adventure.

While Post piloted the plane, Rogers banged out his newspaper columns on his typewriter. On the way to Point Barrow, they became lost in bad weather; they landed in a lagoon a few miles from Point Barrow to ask directions. Larry Rivers suggests this scenario: The boys were skud running in strange and unforgiving country. They were heavy and worried. Mostly their attention was outside the aircraft, watching the contrast between water and land along the coast so they did not lose ground reference with gray fog on gray water. They were running on the forward tanks, intending to refuel them in Barrow. Since they had poor maps and were flying on pilotage they probably were concerned about how much further they had to fly in that crud. When they saw people, they landed for directions, (we all do it) and probably considered it a place they could stop if they had too... but... they learned Barrow was just a few miles away. Rather than figure out how to tie down the aircraft when there are no trees, and set up camp (unpack the plane) they decided to go on.

("Will, my boy, its only 15 miles, I think we can make it, and then we will have fuel, a warm bed, weather services and tie downs..lets push on north, and we will wait there for better weather.") They jumped back in the plane, were still concerned about weather and worried that they might not see good enough to get from the lake back to the coast, which they needed to follow to Barrow. Minds were on other things and they forgot to check fuel and switch to a fresh tank. (we have all done that too) In the air they intended to stay low, so they could see the ground and not lose ground reference in the ice fog. Minds on everything except fuel...then the engine quit. Having just taken off they were not up to cruise speed, and did not have enough wind over the horizontal to prevent tail stall, and not enough altitude to dump the nose even if they had. In that position, they were nearly behind the power curve on take off (we have all done that too I hate to admit), and when the engine quit there was nothing available to hold the nose down. It would have pitched up steeply, stalled immediately, and the aircraft would have come down.

Probably in a tail slip first until wind got on the rudder and weather vane would have made it rotate, in which case it could have hit nose first. The engine quit when they tried to take off again, and plane plunged into the lagoon, tearing off the right wing, and killing both men instantly. The Barrow folks that took part in this report that the aircraft was "Experimental" and had huge fuel tanks. The aft tanks were full, and the forward tanks had run dry. The aircraft was terribly tail heavy with the fuel load. When they took off, they mistakenly remained on a nearly dry tank. When the aircraft rotated into flight and started to climb, the engine experienced fuel starvation, or at least interruption due to empty or nearly empty forward tank. When the engine sputtered and lost power the aircraft was at low airspeed and there was not enough elevator control to keep the nose down. Simply out of the weight and balance envelope. Without thrust, the tail would have dropped, and the aircraft would have plummeted to the earth. Not necessarily in a nose heavy dive. An Inuit named Clare Okpeah saw the plane wreck and ran the fifteen miles to Barrow to report it.

When he described the two men to Army Sergeant Stanley Morgan, Morgan knew that it must be the two famous travelers. He radioed the War Department, and led a recovery party to the site. The remains of both men began the final journey back to Oklahoma. Shortly after Post's death his widow sold the famed Winnie Mae to the Smithsonian. The Will Rogers and Wiley Post Monument, across from the state-owned Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport, was dedicated in 1982 to commemorate the 1935 plane crash that killed the humorist and the famous pilot. Two monuments now on the National Register of Historic Places are located at the crash site. Sources:

Question: Who was the first person to fly solo around the world?
Answer: Wiley Post